Copyright Everett Herald
The huge success Sam Darnold is having in his first half-season as the Seahawks’ quarterback? It’s all elementary. The eighth-year veteran is excelling at while leading the NFL in yards per pass attempt and completions of at least 20 yards. He’s third in passer rating, and completed his first 17 passes with four touchdowns in his last game that got Seattle to 6-2 atop the NFC West. Yet Darnold’s mastery of fundamentals may be the biggest key. Two basics in particular have fueled his career revival from discarded former top-three draft pick and NFL journeyman to one of the league’s most productive quarterbacks. The News Tribune asked KJR-FM radio analyst Hugh Millen, the former NFL and Washington Huskies Orange Bowl quarterback, what has surprised him the most about Darnold replacing traded Geno Smith as the Seahawks’ QB. “The top of quarterbacking, in my opinion, is you’ve got to throw it to the right guy at the right time, accurately,” Millen said on the Chuck and Buck Show Thursday morning. “Sam Darnold is doing that. And what’s helping him…he is manipulating with his eyes.” That is, Darnold is looking at one area of the field to get defenders to run to the spot he’s looking at. But he’s throwing to another area he wasn’t looking at, and thus where defenders didn’t run while reading the quarterback’s eyes. Darnold has explained after games his choices to throw — for instance: to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a lower-percentage, 18-yard out route instead of tight end AJ Barner on a simpler, 2-yard out on fourth and 1 against Houston two games ago — is simply him “going through my progressions.” That is, his hierarchy of receiving options on a given play, based on what the defense shows. “A lot of times you think he’s just going through his progression,” Millen said. “He’s intentionally moving defenders into windows (with his eyes), and then smoking the ball into those windows.” So, Sam Darnold, who stressed this eye deception in your quarterback game? When did you learn that? With the Jets, who drafted you third overall in 2018? The Panthers, 49ers, Vikings or Seahawks you’ve played for since then? “Shoot, I think going back to Pop Warner, high school (in San Clemente, California) that’s one of the first things that you learned as a quarterback,” Darnold said Thursday, before practice for the Seahawks’ division game against the Arizona Cardinals (3-5) Sunday at Lumen Field (1:05 p.m., CBS television, KIRO-7 locally). “And it’s a lot easier said than done.” Darnold credits Seahawks first-year quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko for how he has installed each phase of the team’s offensive playbook this spring and summer into fall. Jalen Milroe working on keeping his balance to throw while sidestepping would-be pass rushers at #Seahawks minicamp. “With Coach Janocko, we do such a good job here of coaching that in the plays,” Darnold said. “Even going back to OTAs (organized team activities in May), right when you teach it, it’s ‘All right, here we go. Eyes away, we’re starting there…’ “It’s just the way that we teach it. “And,” Darnold said, “being in the league for eight years now, I think there comes a little bit of savviness to it, as well.” Janocko, 37, played quarterback at the University of Pittsburgh in his native state of Pennsylvania. He began his NFL coaching career with Tampa Bay in 2012. This is his fifth consecutive season as a quarterbacks coach in the league. He’s done it for the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and last year with the Saints, for now-Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak in New Orleans. Janocko said he learned to teach plays starting with where the quarterback’s eyes should go to deceive the defense from Norv Turner, the long-time NFL offensive coordinator and former head coach, plus Klint Kubiak’s father, Gary Kubia,k and Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, among others. “When we install plays there’s an intent on a way we want to progress through things and the way that we want our eyes to work that,” Janocko said following practice Thursday. “We try to tie everything together: Tie their feet, tie the eyes, along with our progression. “Everything has, just, a systematic way of the play works and the way we want to quarterback to get through the play.” Janocko says Darnold’s eye deception is just one reason for his success. Another is his mind. “I think one of the things that allows him to be successful is his information retention, his ability to process it at a fast pace,” the QBs coach said. “He’s a guy that can see flashes, feel flashes and see things on the field… “Him being able to relay that information (that he sees during a play) is something that I think is unique.” His eyes are not the only place Darnold has made changes to how he plays quarterback. He has changed how he throws the football. This has been more of a personal evolution for Darnold than a coaching point. He starred at USC, going 20-4, with a Pac-12 championship plus a Rose Bowl win in the 2016 and ‘17 college seasons. With the Trojans, his throwing motion started low, sometimes down near his right hip. “I’ve only seen three quarterbacks materially change their mechanics at the professional level,” Millen said. “Aaron Rodgers is one. He used to hold the ball up by his ear at Cal. He dropped it down to a more comfortable level at the professional level. “Josh Allen used to have a higher elbow and his shoulder were more cocked on a vertical angle. He wants to have his shoulders more level (now), elbow a little bit lower. He’s talked about that. You can see it on the tape. “And then Sam Darnold would be the third,” Millen said. “When he was at USC, watched him a lot, I know from my eye I could not stand his release. It was like watching Jim Furyk’s golf swing. … “That’s the same thing Darnold’s throwing motion was at USC. He brought the ball way down to his thigh pad, this big, gross, loopy release. “I know he does not have that now.” Darnold acknowledged Thursday he indeed changed his throwing motion between USC and the NFL. “Yeah, I’ve worked on it,” he said. The reason? “Health, I think, is the biggest thing,” Darnold, 28, said. “You know, shoulder and elbow health and continuing to play a long time I think is the real reason behind it.” He said he restructured his throwing motion “from the ground up.” He has raised his motion to begin closer to his shoulder now. And he often flicks his wrist to zip quick throws, shortening his follow-through after he releases the ball. “(It was), obviously, just to be more efficient,” Darnold said. “I think you can always be more efficient with your throwing motion. “So, working from the ground up to get that accomplished.” It’s helped him get the ball out quicker, a key to quarterback play against pressure-heavy defenses in today’s NFL. Darnold had a release time on average of 3.01 seconds last season, when he went 14-3 and threw for 4,300 yards with 35 touchdowns in a year for the Vikings that reshaped his career. That was the league’s second-longest release time among regular starting quarterbacks, according to a study by Opta Analyst. Only San Francisco’s Brock Purdy had a longer one. Yet it’s faster than it used to be. And at times, it’s been very quick. In 2018, his rookie season starting for the Jets, Darnold was measured at 1.65 seconds releasing a 31-yard pass in a game. This season, his average time from receiving the snap to throwing the ball with the Seahawks is 2.58 seconds, per Sumer Sports. That’s an improvement on his 2.87 seconds he had last season for Minnesota. It’s far better than the 3 seconds he averaged to throw in 2022 while starting for Carolina. A better throwing motion, quicker release and shorter time to throw all have helped Seattle’s offensive line in pass protection. Darnold has been sacked only nine times in 225 drop-backs to pass. Entering this NFL week 10 Darnold was tied with Denver’s Bo Nix for fewest times sacked among all league QBs who have played at least six games this season. No one saw that coming from a Seahawks O-line that’s been a problem for most of the last decade before this season. “I’ve always been working on that,” Darnold said Thursday, “trying to get the ball out fast.”
